The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-10-08
BISMARCK'S WIFE.
Appearance and Character OF the German
ChznceIIor's Better Halt

A friend who, during visit to HON.
burg. has met and frequently dined
with Bsmarck's wife, kindly sends me
an interesting description of her.
Princess Bismarck, who alone enjoys
the privilege of telling the master Of
Europe that he needs to change his
collar or to be more careful about his
personal appearance in general, was
originally Fraulein Won Puttkamer,
member of noble Pomeranian family,
and she is a most interesting woman,
although probably not one in thou
sand readers has ever heard any thilig
about her. She can not be called SO
lovely. She is past sixty, very tall, and
very gray. Her face is very strong,
with large cheek bones. She Is rather
what a character of Dickens describes
as "a fine figure of woman" inclined
perhaps. to1be bony. Her acquaint-
ance with the people at Homburg and
Frankfort d ties from the time long
ago, when Bismarck, not in the least
a great man then. was simply an off,
cial at Frankfort. She made friends
then to whom she has always remained
true, and whom she goes every year to
see.
Wherever Mrs. Bismarck is she rules.
When she enters house every window
must be closed tight, and no door can
remain needlcssly open, as she shares
with the French their morbid dread Of
currents of air. At the table she is
fond of talking. and speaks very loud
and decidedly. She gets very much
excited in discussion, and to contradict
her is not safe. She is very fond of
music and discusses it learnedly, al
though she really knows very little
about it. This causes many wordy
battles between her and her old friend.
Baroness Willie Rothschild, one of the
friends gained in Bismarck's less inn
portant days. The Baroness is old, and,
like most Rothschilds. not remarkable
for beauty, but she is bright, really
knows something about music, writes
French songs and composes great
deal. She plays and sings her own
work, and she and the Princess Bis
marck do great deal of talking about
it.
The Princess shares her husbands
digestive troubles. and relies, like him,
upon the advice of the expert DIR.
Schweininger, but, like her grand hus-
band and the old Emperor, she quite
refuses to be governed in her living by
medical advice, and my correspondent
writes me how she drinks champagne
almost frozen. in spite of the entreseties
of her lady companion.
1.-THE only unfavorable thing about
Princess Won Bismarck" says my cor
respondent, naively, "is that she neg
lects to consider how youth should be
talked to, and even at tables, where
young girls may be, does not repress
her tendency to relate tales with faint
of Boccaccio.
Princess Bismarck has brought her
boys up in the way they should go, and,
although she lived long time in lit
tie hotel on Kiselegstrasse, they came
frequently to see her. Herbert, from
Koenigstein, and William, who calls
himself and likes to be called "Bill"
Bismarck, from Hainau, not far from
Frankfort, where he is Landrath.
Neither of the boys resembles his
mother, but they take after their
father, especially William, who is a
wonderfully exact, though mentally ill
used, Observation-Disclosures Cor. NJ Y
Herald